...I had no idea these PS2-era games had mini games. Stoked!
are any of them deep enough to reasonably count as a stand alone entry on the "Games Beaten" list?
yes. Motor Kombat is a full on Mario Kart clone game. There's also a Puzzle Fighter clone game as well. These really are full bonus games, not just mini games.
I can't remember which games are where though - some were only on LE's, I believe.
dsheinem wrote:Ack, I know I like MK1-3, so the idea is to play the rest prior to TR. I'll play 1-3 that month and shoot for the full mainline series by year's end.
Haha, then you and I have the opposite problem! I spent a lot of time with MK but didn't really follow the sequels until Mortal Kombat Trilogy and then went through the various 3D reincarnations to try and get the taste of MK4 out of my mouth. So for me, it'll be about going back to recapture the magic.
noiseredux wrote:I can't remember which games are where though - some were only on LE's, I believe.
Hmm, I thought the LE stuff was all video content...maybe w/ports of some of the earlier 2D games, too? I'll be sad if I don't have the mini games. Specifically, I recently bought this:
...they better be there!
By not having the LEs I thought I was just missing stuff I have elsewhere or videos I can find on YouTube...
noiseredux wrote:I can't remember which games are where though - some were only on LE's, I believe.
Hmm, I thought the LE stuff was all video content...maybe w/ports of some of the earlier 2D games, too? I'll be sad if I don't have the mini games. Specifically, I recently bought this:
...they better be there!
By not having the LEs I thought I was just missing stuff I have elsewhere or videos I can find on YouTube...
I'm not a huge shmup guy. I mainly play for survival and rarely get deep into scoring analysis. So I'll keep this brief.
Gekirindan is a vertical Taito shooter originally released in the arcades and then ported to the Saturn. I just looked up the Saturn port on eBay and then cried a little. Anyhow, the version on Taito Legends 2 is the arcade original, of course.
This is essentially a textbook shooter. One button for autofire, one for screen-clearing bombs. Get the power-ups (I like the homing gun) and don't die. The player has a choice between a spaceship, helicopter, and biplane. There are six characters total, though three are available to player 1 and the other three are for player 2 to chose among. I picked the cute bookworm girl who pilots a helicopter.
This is a time travel game! One level occurs in the futuristic dystopia of 1999 (I was hoping for 199X, shucks), another takes you back to 1942 perhaps as a Capcom shout-out, and then there are the distant future stages such as the final one (4580 AD). The graphics are pleasing. I especially enjoy the future stages, which look like robotic cyberpunk nightmares. Bullets are very bright and distinct from the backgrounds. The enemies match the stages well: there are WWII era planes to battle in 1942 and malicious androids in the future. As is typical for many shmups of this era, the bosses are really just larger variations of the regular bad guys. Massive planes, massive tanks, etc.
The soundtrack is unique. It technically consists of only one song remixed for each level. Thankfully it's an upbeat techno track that fits well with the overall theme of the game. I dig it.
Gekirindan isn't super challenging. Hardcore shmup dudes could 1CC this with some practice. My first run took about 7 credits. My second run: 4 credits.
Fun game overall. Probably not worth tracking down the Saturn port but it's yet another reason to own Taito Legends 2 (as if the inclusion of Alpine Ski wasn't enough of a reason, amirite?).
Speaking of Taito Legends 2, I'll be shelving that for a bit. Just changed my Saturn battery so I can dive back into Ys II!
1.) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (PC) 2.) Transistor (PC) 3.) Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death (PC) 4.) Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC) 5.) The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PC) 6.) Dragon Age: Inquisition (PC)
Thoughts:
Once the positive feedback started coming in, I actually pre-purchased DA:I, and have been playing it off and on since it came out. The general estimates for time to beat don’t seem to be exaggerated; I clocked 68 hours or so, and still have a fair bit I could run around and do.
In general, I really enjoyed the game – the massive, varied environments seem like a direct apology for DA:II. Bioware managed to tie together all kinds of past choices, along with a good number of major and minor characters from the previous games, DLC, and other media. The writing is excellent, especially for how it needs to adapt to the player – and it’s hard to tell just how good it is without replaying the game making different choices. It all seems to come back around, for better or worse.
By contrast though, a lot of the actual game mechanics sort of seem to just be there for the sake of themselves. Combat itself is mediocre. Granted, I could have made it harder, turned on friendly fire, all that (or just not gone with Knight Enchanter, as it is disgustingly broken)…but I felt like that would just be frustrating, rather than interesting. The tactical view was infuriating enough to use just doing the handful of puzzles that required it. It’s been (further) consolized, and unlike Mass Effect, it’s not better for it.
By default, provided I wasn’t underleveled, it was just a sloppy hack and slash against largely repetitive enemies. As I understand from other looks at it, the game originally had more tactical decisions to make mid-combat, but that stuff got dropped (or moved the the war table).
All the crafting and enchanting systems seemed wasted, as outside of requisitions and throwing a few runes on things, I never even used them. Didn’t need to, and the plans/etc that I came across couldn’t produce items better than I ran across anyway. ‘course, there were still various things to harvest or pick up every few feet…
Even around the 50+ hour mark, I was able to initiate the last few missions, and held off because there were full zones I hadn’t even been to yet. Some of what I’d yet to do wound up helping or opening up other paths to take. Plenty of others didn’t connect (at least not yet) with main story stuff at all – something I found odd. Even with most Bioware games, it tends to be a matter of making the rounds to secure resources or support. On a design level, that serves to push them into different areas. DA:I kind of lacked that in a comprehensive sense.
What it felt more like was more of an MMO setup, where zones were there simply to have level-appropriate content, and possibly get added to later.
It doesn’t detract from the better parts of the game – and to a fair point, gives the chance to work in a ton of lore – but I feel like the game is a lot better when it’s being more linear. Still, a grand entry to the series that left me looking forward to the next one.
Knight-Enchanter is hilariously broken. On multiple dragons I ended up soloing them for half their health because my party decided to stand in the fire but my Knight-Enchanter was effectively invincible.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
